Leaves oblanceolate or rarely oblong-lanceolate, acute or rarely gradually narrowed and rounded at apex, cuneate at base, decurrent on short stout petioles, coarsely serrate above the middle or entire, yellow-green, covered above by minute dark glands and below by bright orange-colored glands, 1½′—4′ long and ¼′—½′ wide, with a slender pale midrib often puberulous below, and few obscure arcuate veins, fragrant with a balsamic resinous odor; gradually deciduous at the end of their first year. Flowers in small oblong aments, with ovate acute ciliate scales, those of the staminate plant ½′—¾′ long, about twice as long as those of the pistillate plant; stamens few, with oblong slightly obcordate anthers at first tinged with red, becoming yellow; ovary gradually narrowed into 2 slender spreading stigmas longer than its scale. Fruit in short spikes, ripening in September and October and persistent on the branches during the winter, irregularly deciduous in the spring and early summer, globose, about ⅛′ in diameter, slightly papillose, light green, coated with thick pale blue wax; seed pale, minute. A tree, occasionally 40° high, with a tall trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, slender upright or slightly spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and slender branchlets marked by small pale lenticels, coated at first with loose rufous tomentum and caducous orange-colored glands, bright red-brown or dark brown tinged with gray, usually lustrous and nearly glabrous during their first winter, finally becoming dark brown; generally smaller, frequently shrubby. Winter-buds oblong, acute, 1/16′—⅛′ long, with numerous ovate acute imbricated scales, the inner scales becoming nearly ½′ long, and often persistent until the young branch has completed its growth. Bark of the trunk ¼′ thick, compact, smooth, light gray. Wood light, soft and brittle, dark brown, with thin lighter-colored sapwood. Distribution. In the neighborhood of the coast; Cape May, New Jersey, southern Delaware and Maryland to the keys of southern Florida, and through the Gulf states to the shores of Aranzas Pass, San Patricio County, Texas, ranging inland to the neighborhood of Natchez, Jackson County, Mississippi, the valley of the Red River (Natchitoches, Louisiana and Fulton, Arkansas), and to Cherokee County, Texas, and northward to the valley of the Washita River, Arkansas; on the Bermuda and Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles; most abundant and of its largest size on the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts in sandy swamps and pond holes; the most common woody plant and forming great thickets on the Everglades east of Lake Okeechobee, Florida; in the sandy soil of Pine-barrens and on dry arid hills of the interior, often only a few inches in height, var. _pumila_ Michx. 2. Myrica inodora W. Bartr. Wax Myrtle. [Illustration: Fig. 160]